Marketing Strategies: Complex Combinations

The Full Picture: Some Key Points

All Centres and Channels need not be activated, but all potentially affect the profitability of a business, and all may be used by competitors. In any case, it is essential to be aware of the three key tensions in marketing.

While it is unrealistic to be fully comprehensive, multiple strategies are usually required for success. Strategies must be selected to be consistent and to form a coherent, linked whole—starting with market awareness (L7), leading to effective positioning and ultimately bedded down in efficient and economic operations (L1). Common complex combinations of strategies are shown above and listed here.

ClosedComplex Strategies

Strong firms combine simple strategies to develop powerful complex strategies. Here are some of the most common examples

Innovation Strategy:
combines R&D, first-mover, commoditisation sub-strategies

Domination Strategy:
combines commoditisation, applications, education, standards, and strategic alliances sub-strategies

Intimacy Strategy (aka «Complete Satisfaction»):
combines customer-partnering, care, loyalty, customisation and direct-sales sub-strategies

Promotion Strategy:
combines pricing, advertising, segmentation, differentiation, niche and brand sub-strategies

Excellence Strategy:
combines brand, product and benchmark sub-strategies

Exclusion Strategy:
combines niche, distribution and benchmark sub-strategies

General Reflections

The issues covered are fundamental to any business, even if some turn out to provide little strategic benefit. It is always necessary to have a strategy, i.e. make decisions about price, about distribution and about many other matters identified within the framework.

Choosing and developing strategies to gain a competitive advantage is time consuming. Committed implementation often implies a substantial investment in time, people and money. Complex strategies are particularly demanding and costly.

The appropriate combination and application of strategies/decisions depends on the particular industry, company, stage of the product life cycle and state of the market.

ClosedNew Economy Businesses

Customers for new technology are generally pragmatic, and dislike change and the effort to learn something different. Many choose to depend on the test of time, so new high-tech products require an extraordinary mixture of strategies to bridge the gap between innovation (L7/L6) and the everyday market (L5–L1). Read more.

Appropriate lower-level strategies are also essential.

Brief notes on common contentious topics:

■ Pitfalls of New Technology
■ Quests for Customer Satisfaction
■ The Favourite Weak Strategy: Line Extension

Originally posted: July 2009